George W. Bush in Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke
On Homeland Security:
Clarke: Bush wants homeland security but did not fund it
Regrettably, the Administration sought to do homeland security on the cheap,
telling Tom Ridge that creating the new department had to be ‘revenue neutral,’ jargon for no new money to implement the largest government reorganization in history.
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, p.253
Mar 23, 2004
On Principles & Values:
Clarke: Bush admin uses war on terror for political gain
Randy Beers [senior counterterrorism official] states, “the Bush Administration is using the War on Terror politically. You know that document from Karl Rove’s office that someone found in the park? Remember how it said the Republicans should run for
election on the war issue? Well, they did. They are doing ‘Wag the Dog”! They ran against Max Cleland, saying he wasn’t patriotic because he didn’t agree 100% with Bush on how to do homeland security. Cleland lost 3 limbs for this country in Vietnam!“
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, p.242
Mar 23, 2004
On War & Peace:
Clarke: Bush insisted on connecting 9-11 with Saddam
On September 12th, I left the video conferencing center and there, wandering alone around the situation room, was the president. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. “Look,”
he told us, “I know you have a lot to do and all, but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he’s linked in any way.”I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed.
“But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this.”
“I know, I know, but - see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred-”
“Absolutely, we will look-again.” I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive.
“But you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of Al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen.”
“Look into Iraq, Saddam,” the president said testily and left us.
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, chapter 1
Mar 23, 2004
On War & Peace:
Bush admin knew Iraq not a threat, & had no time for terror
[Anti-terror czar Dick Clarke said], “I am unaware of any Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed at the US since 1993, and I think FBI and CIA concur in that judgment?” CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin replied, “Yes, that is right. We have no evidence of
any active Iraqi terrorist threat against the US.” The truth was that the [Bush administration had] a full agenda and a backlog of Bush priority issues: the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, the Kyoto agreement, and Iraq. There was no time for terrorism.“
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, p.231-234
Mar 23, 2004
On War & Peace:
Clarke: CIA and FBI intelligence failures allowed 9/11
Somewhere in CIA there was information that two known al Qaeda terrorists had come into the US. Somewhere in FBI there was information that strange things had been going on at flight schools in the US. Could we have stopped the September 11 attack? It
would be facile to say yes. What is clear is that there were failures in the organizations that we trusted to protect us, failures to get information to the right place at the right time, earlier failures to act boldly to reduce or eliminate the threat.
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, p.236-8
Mar 23, 2004
On War & Peace:
Clarke: Bush Iraq policy generates Islamic hatred of America
[Clarke says, “Ideological infiltrations by al Qaeda] would not inflame Islamic opinion and further radicalize Muslim youth into heightened hatred of America in the way invading Iraq has done. We and our values needed to be more appealing to Muslims than
al Qaeda is. Far from addressing the popular appeal of the enemy that attacked us, Bush handed that enemy precisely what it wanted and needed, proof that America was at war with Islam, that we were the new Crusaders come to occupy Muslim land.”
Source: Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke, p.245-6
Mar 23, 2004
Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018